Paris, Paris// BS// Words Hurt More than Sticks and Stones// Paying a High Price for Ignorance
Paris, Paris
Hm so apparently I thought I was leaving on Sunday for Paris. But actually it's Saturday.
Oops, this is what happens when your brain goes on summer holiday. :P
To be honest, I'm not excited about going to Paris.
"What the frick are you talking about?!?!"
Because there are a lot of unknowns right now- not sure how I'm gonna get around with my extremely limited french (screw gr 12 french- I'd love to speak English to them so as to not offend them by butchering their own language), not sure how I'm getting from the airport to the dorm and I'm just a little hesitant about how I'm gonna be spending my days there. I know I'll be in the classroom and going on field trips- I'm excited about going to Versailles.
Yesterday I drew up a list of places I wanted to go to on my own if they weren't covered under our school trips:
-100 years of Vogue exhibition
-Rodin museum (sculptor of some of the most poetically 'erotic' sculptures)
-Yves Saint Laurent private museum/archive (THIS IS A MUST. Be it hell or high water, I am going here. From the start of his career to the end, every single drawing is archived and shown here.. drool)
-Musee de Costume (or something like a fashion museum)
-Angelina (some early 20th century cafe)
-The Opera House
-An exhibition dedicated to Jean Paul Gaultier (fashion designer)
-A lot of sighing as I walk down the Champs- elysees (meaning a lot of expensive window shopping. I must visit Chanel and Hermes)
-Pantheon
Um yeah. Not really into the Eiffel Tower because I went there in gr10 and it's annoying. I'm also semi dreading going to Versailles and seeing a ton of annoying Chinese group tours just going snap happy and waving their yellow flags around. And there are various cafes I'd like to hit up including this traditional Japanese tea salon (yes I see the irony in all this- I bought a venetian mask in Japan two years ago). The thing is is that I know my interests usually do not lie within the realms of clubbing, partying and drinking which I'm sure when all the American kids get there, will let loose and go nuts since hte drinking age is 21 in the States. I may go to one or two just to see how it differs from Canadian/American ones but yeah. Never was a clubber- it doesn't really excite me in any way besides the idea that I could dress a little crazier (in a very Sam-like fashion of course meaning sequins and stuff I use for photographing!). Yeah but I'd rather spend my time in a cafe or taking another look around the Louvre to see with my own two eyes the paintings that we herald as such great masterpieces today.
Yeah, I pray that God will give me some companions that share the same cultural/artistic interests as I do.
Oh- I'm also hoping to take a look at the Parisian street style and taking pictures of what they wear across the Atlantic. Fun fun fun.
-------------------------------------------------------
BS
Oh man, we had a good good good bible study this week: 1 Peter. I wish I was here for Part 2 and 3. :( I love group discussions- I find it slightly boring after a while studying it on my own since I only have my own opinion to go off of but on Tuesday we got a mix of insight and questions which I thought was very neat.
---------------------------------------------------------
Words Hurt More than Sticks and Stones
This week I've been yet again faced with another situation dealing with someone who is stepping all over me.
You don't realize it until you get into it. Initially you just brush it off as some random remarks, but after a while, the person thinks they can just talk you down and it becomes a 'norm'.
And yesterday, I just had enough of it. But being me, I just kept pretending everything was fine although I smiled slightly less and ignored the person sometimes. But inside, I wanted to just scream- I did nothing to deserve it. I took it with humility- the corrections, the 'advice', the crit. But I realized yesterday it got to the point where the person was just laughing at me at my own expense to elevate their own pride/esteem.
To the point where I just told my mom I hated the person.
All that resentment I was harbouring inside of me while having a smile plastered on my face, pretending I was okay- it just really got to me. So now I either have to talk to the person, explode the next time I am provoked or just ignore them.
Ironically those who claim to be the most sensitive people are actually the most insensitive people because they know how to hurt people with words. They know what makes them tick, what wounds and thus use it wrongly to their own advantage.
--------------------------------------------------------
Paying a High Price for Ignorance
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an 'authoress'- I wanted to write beautiful stories and illustrate them myself. I wanted to be an artist- to make this world more beautiful. What did you want to be as a kid?
I had a good day today. I watched the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" recommended by my friend so all three of us congregated at her house to watch it.
Great documentary.
It just proves what retards we are and how some of us who claim to be on the cutting edge of technology are actually the most resistant to change.
This is what it really looks like (my self made diagram):
Worst-------------------------Mediocre------------------Best
Gas guzzling cars------------Hybrid Cars------------Electric Cars
Problem------------------ What we have now-----------Solution
The darnest thing about this whole retarded issue is that we have the solution/answer already there- it's been test driven, used and high acclaimed as a the best REPLACEMENT for the gas-run cars and yet because of politics, oil company pressure, the loss of 'trillions' of dollars for oil companies, they decided to shut it all down. It's not like there's no solution to our emissions problems. THERE ALREADY IS A SOLUTION. Who needs a frickin hybrid when the electric car is even better?
Oh and their marketing campaign for the electric car was a piece of crap. I could have done better.
After I watched it, I was appalled. Appalled by the selfishness of our leaders of today.
Someone once told me that they didn't think that if the leaders were concerned about saving the Kyoto Protocol- then they must be right since they know 'soooo much' more than us civilians. There are a lot of business disadvantages, economic problems and other issues that we'd have to deal with in order to adjust to the rules of the Kyoto Protocol.
I was speechless.
I could not believe someone basically just said that "if the leaders, who we believe are so smart, don't think the Kyoto Protocol is gonna work, then we believe them although we know nothing about it ourselves. Let's just trust them."
Omg, if we all believed that, I don't care, we could have the next Hitler and all of us would just 'trust' that he was doing the right thing.
Would you follow Jesus blindly? Would you place that 'trust' or blind faith in someone you haven't looked into, examined, scrutinized before coming to a decision? As Christians we are told to question our faith because it makes our testimonies even more real. We can answer confidently why we believe in this 'Jesus' as opposed to Allah or Buddha.
And yet we ironically place more trust in our human leaders.
The basic fundamental question BEYOND politics and personal agendas is this:
Is the Environment Worth Saving?
Yes/No
Sometimes, I wonder, why we always think the right way is the easiest. In fact, the right thing to do is always the hardest. No one said trying to uphold the Kyoto Protocol was easy. Okay, let's put it this way. The only people who are resistant to the changes are the big companies who are directly impacted because it means losing money. But the fact is that oil companies make more profit each year (honestly a trillionaire does not need another million- as my philosophy teacher said, we all know money is not the end goal in life because look at Bill Gates, the richest man, he donates a lot to his charities and does a lot to help society. If it was, he would be hoarding it).
Do you remember the song 'Circle of Life' (Lion King)? If we don't change our ways and try to save the environment do you know who is going to be affected first?:
The starving poor in slums.
The very people we see in World Vision videos or missions clips.
I've said this before but I don't think we understand this. If they're first impacted it will indefinitely affect the rest of us. Some of us can't live in Hong Kong because the air is so bad. Women in China give birth to deformed kids because they drink water that's so heavily poisoned by the neighbouring industries (I did a case study of this in gr 12)- and yet they are powerless to change the CEOs and the Executives because they have little voice. And even if they were aware of the environmental damage despite having little education, they have no choice but to drink the tainted water- their only access to h20 is from that well or river. You see, even if oil workers kept their jobs and the protocol did not go through, eventually someone will have to pay whether you acknowledge it or not- and right now, those who are affected are those in the Iraq War.
I wonder- when we were kids, when asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, we often dreamed of saving the world, being firemen, astronauts, superheroes.
Why?
Because we wanted to change the world for the better. Firemen: to save lives. Astronauts: in reverence and awe, explore the wonders of what God has made. Superheroes fought the 'bad guys'.
What happened?
What happened to all those altruistic dreams of doing good? Have we really sacrificed all that we once held dear for our own selfish ambitions, narrow mindedness and lack of care and sensitivity?
Well after the documentary, which actually made my eyes prickle because I saw that there was hope and that hope was crushed for the sake of a few people's already fat bank accounts, we switched to a CIBC special 11 part series called 'Planet Earth'- footage documenting never seen before animals, wildlife and images of our planet.
Sometimes, all it takes is just a single satellite image of a river to remind you how small we are on this earth. I was looking at this picture which seemed so much like a kindergarten drawing- green for the land and brown for the river and its tributaries. And I felt so finite.
God's plans are nourishing and eternal.
Ours are shortlived and destructive.
But perhaps one day, we'll reintroduce the electric car.
It's never too late to change.
Hm so apparently I thought I was leaving on Sunday for Paris. But actually it's Saturday.
Oops, this is what happens when your brain goes on summer holiday. :P
To be honest, I'm not excited about going to Paris.
"What the frick are you talking about?!?!"
Because there are a lot of unknowns right now- not sure how I'm gonna get around with my extremely limited french (screw gr 12 french- I'd love to speak English to them so as to not offend them by butchering their own language), not sure how I'm getting from the airport to the dorm and I'm just a little hesitant about how I'm gonna be spending my days there. I know I'll be in the classroom and going on field trips- I'm excited about going to Versailles.
Yesterday I drew up a list of places I wanted to go to on my own if they weren't covered under our school trips:
-100 years of Vogue exhibition
-Rodin museum (sculptor of some of the most poetically 'erotic' sculptures)
-Yves Saint Laurent private museum/archive (THIS IS A MUST. Be it hell or high water, I am going here. From the start of his career to the end, every single drawing is archived and shown here.. drool)
-Musee de Costume (or something like a fashion museum)
-Angelina (some early 20th century cafe)
-The Opera House
-An exhibition dedicated to Jean Paul Gaultier (fashion designer)
-A lot of sighing as I walk down the Champs- elysees (meaning a lot of expensive window shopping. I must visit Chanel and Hermes)
-Pantheon
Um yeah. Not really into the Eiffel Tower because I went there in gr10 and it's annoying. I'm also semi dreading going to Versailles and seeing a ton of annoying Chinese group tours just going snap happy and waving their yellow flags around. And there are various cafes I'd like to hit up including this traditional Japanese tea salon (yes I see the irony in all this- I bought a venetian mask in Japan two years ago). The thing is is that I know my interests usually do not lie within the realms of clubbing, partying and drinking which I'm sure when all the American kids get there, will let loose and go nuts since hte drinking age is 21 in the States. I may go to one or two just to see how it differs from Canadian/American ones but yeah. Never was a clubber- it doesn't really excite me in any way besides the idea that I could dress a little crazier (in a very Sam-like fashion of course meaning sequins and stuff I use for photographing!). Yeah but I'd rather spend my time in a cafe or taking another look around the Louvre to see with my own two eyes the paintings that we herald as such great masterpieces today.
Yeah, I pray that God will give me some companions that share the same cultural/artistic interests as I do.
Oh- I'm also hoping to take a look at the Parisian street style and taking pictures of what they wear across the Atlantic. Fun fun fun.
-------------------------------------------------------
BS
Oh man, we had a good good good bible study this week: 1 Peter. I wish I was here for Part 2 and 3. :( I love group discussions- I find it slightly boring after a while studying it on my own since I only have my own opinion to go off of but on Tuesday we got a mix of insight and questions which I thought was very neat.
---------------------------------------------------------
Words Hurt More than Sticks and Stones
This week I've been yet again faced with another situation dealing with someone who is stepping all over me.
You don't realize it until you get into it. Initially you just brush it off as some random remarks, but after a while, the person thinks they can just talk you down and it becomes a 'norm'.
And yesterday, I just had enough of it. But being me, I just kept pretending everything was fine although I smiled slightly less and ignored the person sometimes. But inside, I wanted to just scream- I did nothing to deserve it. I took it with humility- the corrections, the 'advice', the crit. But I realized yesterday it got to the point where the person was just laughing at me at my own expense to elevate their own pride/esteem.
To the point where I just told my mom I hated the person.
All that resentment I was harbouring inside of me while having a smile plastered on my face, pretending I was okay- it just really got to me. So now I either have to talk to the person, explode the next time I am provoked or just ignore them.
Ironically those who claim to be the most sensitive people are actually the most insensitive people because they know how to hurt people with words. They know what makes them tick, what wounds and thus use it wrongly to their own advantage.
--------------------------------------------------------
Paying a High Price for Ignorance
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an 'authoress'- I wanted to write beautiful stories and illustrate them myself. I wanted to be an artist- to make this world more beautiful. What did you want to be as a kid?
I had a good day today. I watched the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" recommended by my friend so all three of us congregated at her house to watch it.
Great documentary.
It just proves what retards we are and how some of us who claim to be on the cutting edge of technology are actually the most resistant to change.
This is what it really looks like (my self made diagram):
Worst-------------------------Mediocre------------------Best
Gas guzzling cars------------Hybrid Cars------------Electric Cars
Problem------------------ What we have now-----------Solution
The darnest thing about this whole retarded issue is that we have the solution/answer already there- it's been test driven, used and high acclaimed as a the best REPLACEMENT for the gas-run cars and yet because of politics, oil company pressure, the loss of 'trillions' of dollars for oil companies, they decided to shut it all down. It's not like there's no solution to our emissions problems. THERE ALREADY IS A SOLUTION. Who needs a frickin hybrid when the electric car is even better?
Oh and their marketing campaign for the electric car was a piece of crap. I could have done better.
After I watched it, I was appalled. Appalled by the selfishness of our leaders of today.
Someone once told me that they didn't think that if the leaders were concerned about saving the Kyoto Protocol- then they must be right since they know 'soooo much' more than us civilians. There are a lot of business disadvantages, economic problems and other issues that we'd have to deal with in order to adjust to the rules of the Kyoto Protocol.
I was speechless.
I could not believe someone basically just said that "if the leaders, who we believe are so smart, don't think the Kyoto Protocol is gonna work, then we believe them although we know nothing about it ourselves. Let's just trust them."
Omg, if we all believed that, I don't care, we could have the next Hitler and all of us would just 'trust' that he was doing the right thing.
Would you follow Jesus blindly? Would you place that 'trust' or blind faith in someone you haven't looked into, examined, scrutinized before coming to a decision? As Christians we are told to question our faith because it makes our testimonies even more real. We can answer confidently why we believe in this 'Jesus' as opposed to Allah or Buddha.
And yet we ironically place more trust in our human leaders.
The basic fundamental question BEYOND politics and personal agendas is this:
Is the Environment Worth Saving?
Yes/No
Sometimes, I wonder, why we always think the right way is the easiest. In fact, the right thing to do is always the hardest. No one said trying to uphold the Kyoto Protocol was easy. Okay, let's put it this way. The only people who are resistant to the changes are the big companies who are directly impacted because it means losing money. But the fact is that oil companies make more profit each year (honestly a trillionaire does not need another million- as my philosophy teacher said, we all know money is not the end goal in life because look at Bill Gates, the richest man, he donates a lot to his charities and does a lot to help society. If it was, he would be hoarding it).
Do you remember the song 'Circle of Life' (Lion King)? If we don't change our ways and try to save the environment do you know who is going to be affected first?:
The starving poor in slums.
The very people we see in World Vision videos or missions clips.
I've said this before but I don't think we understand this. If they're first impacted it will indefinitely affect the rest of us. Some of us can't live in Hong Kong because the air is so bad. Women in China give birth to deformed kids because they drink water that's so heavily poisoned by the neighbouring industries (I did a case study of this in gr 12)- and yet they are powerless to change the CEOs and the Executives because they have little voice. And even if they were aware of the environmental damage despite having little education, they have no choice but to drink the tainted water- their only access to h20 is from that well or river. You see, even if oil workers kept their jobs and the protocol did not go through, eventually someone will have to pay whether you acknowledge it or not- and right now, those who are affected are those in the Iraq War.
I wonder- when we were kids, when asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, we often dreamed of saving the world, being firemen, astronauts, superheroes.
Why?
Because we wanted to change the world for the better. Firemen: to save lives. Astronauts: in reverence and awe, explore the wonders of what God has made. Superheroes fought the 'bad guys'.
What happened?
What happened to all those altruistic dreams of doing good? Have we really sacrificed all that we once held dear for our own selfish ambitions, narrow mindedness and lack of care and sensitivity?
Well after the documentary, which actually made my eyes prickle because I saw that there was hope and that hope was crushed for the sake of a few people's already fat bank accounts, we switched to a CIBC special 11 part series called 'Planet Earth'- footage documenting never seen before animals, wildlife and images of our planet.
Sometimes, all it takes is just a single satellite image of a river to remind you how small we are on this earth. I was looking at this picture which seemed so much like a kindergarten drawing- green for the land and brown for the river and its tributaries. And I felt so finite.
God's plans are nourishing and eternal.
Ours are shortlived and destructive.
But perhaps one day, we'll reintroduce the electric car.
It's never too late to change.
1 Comments:
I know you didn't just compare Stephen Harper to Jesus Christ. But i don't know...it was close. Because if you did, that is probably the worst insult you can make, especially to jesus of all people. Wow :P
A better comparison: Stephen Harper is the devil's minion in human form. And George Bush is the devil himself.
Oh and Who Killed the Electric Car was awesome. I'm glad to hear it stirred the same emotions in you as it did in me. But you know, even electric cars aren't the solution because where does the electricity come from?
The solution is carbon-free, electricity-free transportation - walking, biking, etc. And the replanning/redesign of urban/suburban areas to actually accommodate sustainable transportation. Unlike places like Richmond Hill gosh.
Anyways, yay I love posts about the environment. Someday I shall finish my revolutionary post connecting it all together - protecting the environment, evil/sin, and Christianity. Trust me. Once you see the connection, it's like you can't go back.
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